As I told back then; (I visited Bonneville / BUB last year as a member of the Dreamcatcher crew)

"....and wooops: right after I got home the voices in my head (couldn't help it)told me to buy a frame and an Indian engine.Unless something goes really wrong, you'll see me on that thing next year on the Salt.Ye'Sir!It's not like "..I want to go there next year.."nope: I have to!!!!!..."

...so I've waited a bit to introduce my project, till I actually had somethingto show and convince you brilliant experienced lot, that I would 'walk the walk'.

So here it is; the result so far, after a billion hours of work,;(..and a billion hours of more work to do)

The Salt Cracker INDIAN 741, 600cc Special Construction Class Vintage Supercharged Fuel (650 A-VBF)that will run ( if the gods of speed show mercy on my bike and my poor soul,) at this years BUB in August.

This is it's current state of 'advanced mock-up' a few days ago;(...no engine internals, but they are freshly rebuild and somewhat upgraded and are all ready to be installed. In expect to do it right after Easter.)

Of cause the blower belt / intake arrangement is partly mock-upbut the engine-blower-drive itself is ready. As is the most difficult part to dream up;the intake/plenum;

Yeah: I know; looks weird and big'ish, but there's an explanation for that;the weird shape is because one want a large plenum or boost storage tank,ideally around 150-200% of cylinder-volume, on a supercharger V-twin,to 'even out' the pumping action of the blower and the 'un-even' intake 'rythm',according to all the clever old folk who did this back then. This one is around 1200cc so pretty much spot on for this 600cc engine

The bikes configuration came about purely by 'accident':Being and old romantic fart; I wanted to build an Indian.Now big Indian engines are terribly expensive and I just happenedto stumble over this here (relativey) cheap small INDIAN 741 500cc engine (or more like: most of an engine)and transmission. (They hardly ever come up for sale around here)Here they are a few months ago:

Seamed to be in rather fair shape ....but ooops...look at the pistons:

...gotta be the worlds first 546,534 (or what ever) cubic-centimeters Indian engine ..ha ha.

At the same time a friend told about a frame for sale.A "raw" ,never used, special frame made about 6 years ago, combining the beauty of thegas-tank placed under the top-frame-rail and the possibility to install a 741 engine.An INDIAN "101 lookalike", if you will.Here it is a couple of weeks ago, when we made up the seat-'cowling'/rear-fender:

Now running an anaemic 60-something years old 500cc engine,seamed kind of lame so decided to bore it to 600cc (plenty of material on the cylinders to do that)and I just happened to have a small superchargerfrom a small 600cc Japanese mini-car...so on it went to make things a bit more exciting.More torque, and a high gearing / low engine-RPM's sounded like a good idea.Nothing like high RPM's to kill an old engine.

Now a tuned supercharged engine makes a lot of heat (dangerously so)and the decision was made to run on 'fuel' , in this case methanol, to cool things down.

So there it was; (running the BUB / AMA rules) a 650 A-VBF bike.That means I run for a 'soft' (not set before) record.

Some will find that wussy.Well; be my guest, call me a wuss.I think it is very much in the spirit of Bonneville and in the spiritof dear old Mr. Burt Munro, to drag a nearly 70 years old INDIAN across the globe, from another continent,solely to run it on the Salt.

I'll post the progress on the bike here as I get things doneand look back to contemplate some of the problems, the solutions, the not-totally-stupid ideasand the downright idiocy that brought the bike to it's current state.

+ a million other small things. I can safely say that there'snot a single part n the bike that has not been worked over or replaced,from the smallest washer in the engine, over rebuilding the blower... to new wheel spokes

Running gear:...front end from a nineties Sportster . Lowered 2" and progessive springs installed...front wheel; 21" costum off a Sportster as well (new Avon Spedmaster tire)...rear wheel; 17" from a Suzuki 500T (rubber not decided yet)

From the bottom of my heart, and with humble gratitude I'd like toprofoundly thank the following great individuals, without whom this projectwould never ever have had a snowman's chance in hell to become a reality:

...”Rocky” of Dreamcatcher fame, and his brilliantly friendlycrew who accepted me as crew-member at last years BUB Bonneville event and sparkedmy hidden inner Indian .-)Thanks Rocky, thanks guys !

...”Moen” who runs Indian Parts Europe, for immeasurable help, encouragement and willingness to patiently share his encyclopedic knowledge of allthings mechanic in general, and Indian-related in particular.Thanks Moen !

...,”Kenneth” the brilliant Jack of All Fabricating Trades,who at an early stage offered to spend a great chunk (and then some) ofof his spare-time helping me out, doing all the stuff I'm just too plain dumb to do;alu-welding, fabricating stuff on the lathe and on the mill.If I was paying the guy for what he's work is worth; he would be a rich man by now.Thanks Kenneth !

« Last Edit: September 04, 2010, 08:34:19 PM by octane »

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"A designer knows he has achieved perfectionnot when there is nothing left to addbut when there is nothing left to take away"